. 


THE  MOST  REV.  WILLIAM  H.  O’CONNELL,  D.D. 

Archbishop  of  Boston. 


SERMON 


BY 

i 

His  Grace  Archbishop  O’Connell 

AT 

t 

CATHEDRAL  OF  THE  HOLY  CROSS,  BOSTON, 

i 

SUNDAY,  AUGUST  9, 1908 


BEFORE  THE 

r 

»  ► 

Federation  of  Catholic  Societies 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

■  CHESTNUT  KILL,  MASS, 

THE  CHURCH— THE  STRONG  SAFEGUARD  OF 

THE  REPUBLIC 


JBT  1 1  OS' 

O  '] 


Cl )e  Cl)urtl) — Clje  strong  £>afeguar& 

of  tije  l&epufcltc 


NDOUBTEDLY  one  of  the  things  which  drew 
the  hearts  of  men  towards  our  Blessed  Lord, 
was  the  gentle  human  sympathy  which  per- 
whole  life  and  manifested  itself  in  all  his  deal¬ 
ings  with  men.  At  times,  indeed,  he  showed  himself  to 
be  the  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Juda.  Again  and  again  he 
withstood  the  great  ones  of  the  world  to  their  very 
faces.  He  lashed  the  vendors  from  the  temple  gates, 
and  more  mercilessly  still  he  lashed  with  the  scorn  of 
derision  and  contempt  the  haughty  Pharisee  and  the  proud 
hypocrites  who  lorded  it  over  fhe  people.  When  the  honor 
of  the  Father’s  house  demanded  cleansing  and  defence  He 
rose  in  righteous  anger  and  His  very  countenance  struck 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  those  who  beheld  Him. 

But  such  moments  were  rare,  and  in  this  terrifying  mood 
He  showed  Himself  only  to  the  imposter  and  the  hypocrite, 
the  very  sight  of  whom  moved  Him  to  lofty  scorn.  But  to 
the  people  He  was  never  thus.  They  knew  Him  only  as  a 
compassionate  friend  and  a  gentle  benefactor.  Upon  them 
His  face  beamed  with  sympathy  and  love.  When  they 
suffered  He  was  sad  and  He  bore  their  importunities  and 
even  their  fickleness  with  an  unruffled  patience.  At  times 
as  He  looked  over  the  land,  whose  soil  His  sacred  feet  were 
sanctifying,  a  deep  and  tender  melancholy  took  possession 


vaded  his 


2  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


of  His  soul  seeing,  as  He  did,  the  aridness  which  it  seemed 
no  heavenly  dew  could  soften.  In  such  a  mood  His  sadness 
was  as  deep  and  touching  as  when  before  the  mighty  ones 
of  Judea  His  bearing  was  awe-inspiring. 

Today’s  gospel  pictures  Him  in  one  of  those  touching 
moments.  Seated  upon  the  hills  which  overlooked  the 
Sacred  City  He  gazed  upon  it  long  and  wistfully.  For 
Christ  loved  not  only  mankind  in  general  but  He  loved  His 
own  people  as  brother  loves  brother.  With  all  their  faults, 
and  He  knew  them  all  profoundly,  they  were  His  people, 
His  Mother’s  people,  and  they  were  dear  to  Him  as  the  blood 
which  ran  in  His  veins,  and  this  city,  Jerusalem,  God’s  own 
city,  wherein  was  the  temple  built  by  God’s  command  and 
the  ark,  the  table  of  God’s  law,  how  precious  they  were  to  Him. 

Over  the  whole  world  His  vision  ranged  and  before 
His  vision  rose  the  proud  citadels  of  other  lands,  castles 
and  palaces,  powerful  and  rich  and  fair  to  behold.  Other 
temples,  too,  raised  their  splendid  walls,  their  white  marble 
turrets  glittering  in  the  sunlight  and  their  gilded  domes 
glinting  like  mirrors  of  gold.  But  within  them  was  the 
abomination  of  desolation  and  the  worship  of  false  gods  and 
foolish  idols.  Once  more  He  looked  down  upon  the  Holy 
City.  In  that  Holy  of  Holies  the  name  of  the  true  God  was 
spoken.  Upon  those  altars  sacrifice  was  offered  daily  to 
Jehovah,  to  his  own  Father.  There,  alone,  in  all  the  world, 
was  God  known  and  worshipped,  and  yet  as  He  looked  He 
drooped  His  head.  His  face  betrayed  the  awful  sadness  of 
His  soul,  the  tears  sprang  to  His  eyes  and  coursed  down 
His  sacred  cheeks  and  Jesus  wept. 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  3 


When  at  another  time,  standing  near  the  grave  of  his 
beloved  friend  Lazarus,  the  great  sorrow  that  filled  his  soul 
showed  itself  in  tears,  those  who  stood  by  him  said  one  to 
another:  “See  how  He  loved  him/’  His  tears  were  the 
marks  of  His  love.  And  now  as  he  sits  solitary  on  the  mount 
His  love  for  Jerusalem  is  attested  by  the  same  witnesses. 
Christ  was  a  true  patriot.  The  love  of  His  Fatherland  with 
Him  was  deep  and  true  and  strong.  For  it  doubtless  He 
would  have  died,  indeed  He  did  die  for  it,  and  the  cause  of 
His  weeping  now  is  the  thought  that  even  His  death  will 
profit  it  so  little,  and  amid  His  tears  He  raises  His  voice  in 
this  lamentation:  “Ah,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  if  thou  didst  but 
know  the  things  which  are  for  thy  peace !” 

To  establish  peace  in  the  world  Christ  had  come  among 
men.  “Peace  to  men  of  good  will,” — that  was  the  burden  of 
the  angel’s  song  when  in  Bethelehem  the  Prince  of  Peace  was 
born  into  the  world.  The  pagan  nations,  ignorant  as  they 
were  of  the  true  God  and  of  His  law,  had  long  since  lost  the 
secret  of  that  harmony  of  human  and  divine  rights  and  duties 
which  is  the  very  groundwork  of  Peace.  There  was  no  law 
but  the  law  of  force.  Might  alone  prevailed.  The  weak  had 
long  since  ceased  to  look  for  justice;  the  poor  and  the  little 
ones  of  earth  had  long  since  accepted  degradation,  and  the 
voice  of  complaining  had  long  since  been  stifled.  Tyranny 
reigned  supreme,  and  among  the  thousand  gods  to  whom  they 
offered  incense  and  sacrifice  there  was  not  one  with  power 
enough  to  aid  the  weak.  There  was  a  God  of  Riches,  and  a 
God  of  War,  and  a  God  of  Beauty,  and  a  God  of  Pleasure; 
there  was  no  God  of  poverty,  of  humility  and  of  pain.  The 


4  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


rich  sacrificed  to  wealth  that  they  might  obtain  even  greater 
riches  and  they  went  out  from  its  temple  to  plunder  the 
defenceless.  The  slaves  dragged  from  their  burning  hamlets 
were  whipped  into  the  wine  vats  and  their  aching  feet  trod 
the  purple  grapes  into  the  rich  wine  which  their  drunken 
and  pampered  masters  were  to  offer  to  the  Wine  God. 

There  was  no  law  but  the  law  of  force,  and  hatred  of 
man  to  man,  of  tribe  to  tribe,  of  nation  to  nation  was  the 
logical  and  natural  consequence.  Justice  and  equity  are 
founded  not  upon  force,  but  upon  the  eternal  principles  which 
emanate  from  the  God  who  established  His  universe.  And 
when  He  is  banished  from  the  nation’s  heart  justice  and 
equity  vanish  with  Him. 

What  a  garden  of  weeds  God’s  beautiful  world  had 
become — weeds,  poisonous  and  loathsome,  that  grew  out  of 
the  fetid  swamps  and  which,  climbing  as  they  grew, 
reached  even  now  to  where  He  was  sitting  on  the  mountain, 
and  whose  tendrils  had  already  gripped  the  Land  of  Promise 
over  which  God’s  representatives  had  so  long  reigned. 
Already  within  the  gates  of  the  Holy  City  disorder  had 
raised  its  shrill  voice.  The  atmosphere  of  paganism  all 
around  it  had  begun  to  do  its  work. 

The  egotism,  the  selfishness  and  the  heartlessness  of 
wealth  had  entered  through  the  gates  with  the  merchandise 
which  Jerusalem  had  brought  from  Tyre  and  Sidon.  The 
gap  between  the  rich  and  poor  was  ever  widening.  The 
luxury  of  the  farther  Orient  was  fast  sapping  the  moral 
vigor  of  the  Israelite.  The  tablets  of  the  law  were  still 
revered,  but  the  law  itself  was  fast  losing  its  power  over  the 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  5 


nation ;  and  secretly,  step  by  step,  the  vices  of  paganism 
had  crept  up  the  mount  of  Zion  into  the  very  sanctuary  of 
the  Lord.  The  cankerworm  of  irreligion  and  infidelity  was 
gnawing  at  the  very  vitals  of  faith  in  God  and  in  His  law. 
And  the  thin  veil  of  hypocrisy  barely  covered  the  hollowness 
and  the  sham  with  which  the  Pharisee  and  the  Sadducee 
strove  to  hide  by  empty  ceremonial  the  lack  of  true 
observance  of  God’s  commands. 

As  Christ  looked  from  the  high  place  where  He  sat 
over  Jerusalem  and  Palestine,  it  seemed  as  if  the  sacred 
cause  of  God  was  all  but  lost.  The  very  citadel  of  God 
was  now  the  center  of  attack.  There  was  force  enough  and 
more  still  within  that  citadel  to  rout  the  whole  assembled 
army  of  infidelity  and  idolatry  now  gathered  in  battle  array 
up  to  its  very  walls.  The  power  of  God,  the  infinite  and  all 
powerful,  was  there  in  their  midst.  A  hundred  times  before 
He  had  rescued  them,  when  the  faith  of  the  people  was 
strong  and  all  that  faith  was  in  God.  They  had  but  to  rise 
from  the  lethargy  which  their  indifference  and  their 
hypocrisy  had  brought  down  upon  them  to  fling  off  the 
selfishness  which  luxury  was  weaving  about  them  and  to 
stretch  out  their  hands  in  sincerity  toward  the  Son  of  God, 
there  seated  upon  the  mountain  above  them,  to  accept  His 
sweet  yoke  of  humility  and  His  gentle  'burden  of  charity, 
and  once  more  the  reign  of  Jehovah  would  return,  bringing 
in  its  train  justice  and  righteousness  and  the  tranquility 
of  order  which  is  blessed  pe^ce. 

But  alas!  pride  blinded  their  eyes  and  selfishness  had 
hardened  their  hearts.  The  humility  of  the  carpenter’s  son 


6  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


was  foolishness  to  their  proud  minds  and  the  law  of  His 
fraternal  love  was  folly  to  their  selfish  and  greedy  hearts. 
And  He  who  had  come  to  save  them  from  themselves,  He  who 
had  brought  with  Him  the  power  of  Heaven  to  make  them 
again  a  great  nation  upon  the  earth,  He  who  had  brought  the 
reality  of  God’s  presence  instead  of  the  figure  and  the  shadow 
which  they  had  possessed,  He  who  was  their  God  and  their 
King,  was  out  there  on  the  hills  weeping  for  the  blindness 
which  hid  Him  from  their  eyes — a  blindness  which  even  He 
could  not  heal  because  they  did  not  wish  to  see.  Christ 
weeping  over  Jerusalem  will  remain  as  long  as  the  world 
lasts  a  picture  of  that  true  patriotism  of  love,  of  home  and 
country  which  every  follower  of  Christ  should  feel.  A 
picture,  not  of  the  false  and  flattering  love  which  cries 
“Peace,  peace,”  when  there  is  no  peace,  which  signals  “All 
is  well,”  even  when  the  enemy  is  at  the  gates,  which  lulls 
the  dozing  citizens  to  sleep  with  lullabys  fit  only  for  babes. 
There  are  plenty  such  now  being  sung — sweet,  meaningless 
messages  of  false  optimism  telling  the  world  how  good  it 
is  and  that  it  is  constantly  growing  better. 

Not  such  was  Christ’s  patriotism,  not  such  may  be  ours, 
as  we  prize  at  their  true  value  the  prosperity  and  the  real 
happiness  of  the  land  we  love  with  truly  Christian  patriotism. 
Our  duty  it  is,  rather  to  see,  as  if  with  His  vision,  what  are 

i 

the  foes  which  silently  and  stealthily  tend  to  undermine  the 
strength  of  our  beloved  nation ;  and  to  raise  our  voices 
incessantly  against  them,  not  with  the  wail  of  pessimism, 
but  with  the  voice  of  affectionate  warning. 

For  this  land  has  been  given  over  by  God’s  providence 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  7 


to  the  rule  of  all  the  people  and  every  citizen  must  in 
accepting  its  benefits  accept  also  the  responsibility  of 
guarding  its  welfare  and  helping  on  its  prosperity.  And  first 
ever  in  its  defence,  as  first  in  every  civic  duty,  should  be  the 
Catholic  Christian;  for  the  Church  of  Christ  has  much  to  be 
grateful  for  here,  where  its  liberty  is  guaranteed  and  its 
precious  freedom  protected ;  and  the  Catholic  has  always 
shown  his  gratitude  on  every  field  where  his  country’s  honor 
demanded  it. 

Today  thousands  of  her  children  from  every  part  of 
this  vast  land  are  gathered  in  this  historic  city  to  give  new 
proof  of  their  fidelity  to  their  country’s  interests ;  to  sit  for 
a  while  with  Christ  upon  the  mountain  and  to  see  as  with 
His  eyes  what  things  are  for  the  nation’s  peace;  and  then  to 
go  forward  and  strive  as  He  did  to  diminish  as  far  as  we  can 
the  false  principles  which  threaten  her  very  vitality  and  to 
make  known  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  in  which  alone  there  is 
life  and  strength,  not  only  for  the  individual,  but  for  the 
whole  nation. 

This  in  brief  is  the  primary  motive  and  reason  for  the 
Federation  of  Catholic  Societies — namely,  to  safeguard  the 
best  interests  of  the  nation  by  endeavoring  to  bring  out 
into  the  actual  and  throbbing  life  of  the  people  those 
vivifying  principles  of  Christian  civilization  upon  which 
Christian  society  is  built;  and  secondly  by  denouncing 
fearlessly  whatever  endangers  the  public  moral  welfare 
and  agitating  prudently  to  bring  about  a  healthy  public 
sentiment. 

No  one  who  knows,  even  superficially,  the  national  life 


8  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


can  doubt  for  an  instant  that  there  is  great  and  crying  need 
for  activity  on  the  part  of  all  men  of  good  will.  And  since 
the  impending  ills  of  the  body  corporate  are  not  physical  but 
moral  in  their  nature,  the  Church  whose  field  is  the  moral 
world  must  confront  them  now  as  she  has  done  in  all  the 
ages  since  the  days  when  Peter  and  Linus  Cletus  and 
Clement  faced  them  in  the  Roman  Empire  and  by  the  power 
of  the  cross  defeated  them  in  their  very  stronghold.  And 
I  daresay  that  the  Catholic  Church  alone  must  soon  be 
recognized,  not  merely  as  the  strongest,  but  as  the  only 
bulwark  against  the  prevalent  social  evils  which  seem  even 
now  to  threaten  not  only  the  prosperity,  but  the  very 
life  of  the  nation.  For  she  is  today  the  only  moral  body 
which  gives  indication  of  growing  vitality  and  increasing 
vigor.  She  has  grown  in  these  fifty  years  past  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  while  all  around  her  are  strewn  the  wrecks:  of 
what  once  appeared  to  be  flourishing  sects.  The  Catholic 
Church  has  but  just  begun  to  manifest  in  this  young  land 
the  undying  vitality  with  which  Christ  endowed  her,  while 
on  every  side  are  heard  the  cries  of  dissolution  and 
dismemberment  of  what  but  a  few  brief  years  ago  seemed 
energetic  religious  organizations.  It  is  not  we  who  now 
say  this,  but  their  own  leaders  who  can  no  longer  deceive 
themselves  when  the  evidences  are  so  palpable. 

I  used  to  wonder  as  a  boy,  beholding  our  own  small 
number  and  negligible  influence,  when  I  read  that  Protes¬ 
tantism  contained  in  itself  the  germ  of  dissolution  and 
decay,  for  facts,  around  me  seemed  to  offer  little  proof  of 
the  truth  of  that  assertion ;  but  today  more  rapidly  than  one 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  9 


could  ever  imagine  the  proofs  have  come  to  hand  in  the 
facts  under  our  eyes,  and  it  is  the  leaders  of  Protestantism, 
again  I  repeat,  who  are  now  proclaiming  it  to  the  world  that 
unless  all  signs  fail  their  churches  may  soon  close  their  doors. 
Step  by  step  the  principle  of  private  judgment  and  the  so- 
called  “higher  criticism”  have  done  their  havoc.  The  Bible 
which  half  a  century  ago  was  a  fetich  is  today  a  fable,  and 
whatever  there  was  of  simple  faith  in  the  supernatural  is 
fast  being  dried  up  in  the  hearts  of  those  whose  ancestors 
made  faith  alone  the  only  condition  of  eternal  salvation. 
Lutheranism  and  Anglicanism,  as  they  were  a  century  ago, 
have  disappeared  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  All  the  other 
“isms”  which  followed  quickly  one  upon  the  other  have 
reduced  themselves  at  last  to  “nothingism.”  No  faith,  no 
church,  no  fixed  moral  law;  nothing,  in  fine,  of.  all  that 
cannot  be  touched  with  the  hands  and  seen  with  the  eyes, 
even  God  himself  is  no  longer  God,  but  a  first  cause  or  an 
unseen  power  or  anything  but  that  Eternal  Father  whose 
beloved  Son  was  Christ,  the  Redeemer  of  the  world. 

A  few  earnest  souls  outside  of  the  Church  already 
recognize  the  writing  on  the  wall.  They  behold  with  dismay 
the  disintegration  of  societies,  congregations  and  parishes 
They  are  raising  their  voices  now  against  the  debacle  but 
it  is  like  building  a  wall  of  sand  against  an  incoming  tide — . 
the  tide  which  four  centuries  ago  started  with  the  rebellion 
of  Luther  against  his  ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  now  by 
the  force  of  its  own  logic  that  wave  has  gone  on  mounting 
until  rebellion  succeeding  rebellion  in  increasing  proportions 
it  has  submerged  those  who  caused  it  and  has  left  in  its 


10  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


wake  the  utter  ruin  of  the  supernatural  and  scarce  a  vestige 
of  a  revealed  religion  remains.  And  with  its  advance  in 
sympathetic  progress  the  seeds  of  civic  rebellion  have  been 
sown,  and  that,  too,  was  a  logical  consequence.  The 
king  rebelled  against  Papal  supremacy  and  made  himself 
Pope  in  his  own  domain;  the  people  rebelled  against  the 
king  with  perfect  logic  and  assumed  to  themselves  both 
papacy  and  royalty;  and  now  as  the  gaunt  form  of  anarchy 
and  communism  stalk  abroad  the  process  goes  further  and 
wealth  and  power  wherever  they  exist  are  assailed.  If  the 
first  rebellion  was  justifiable,  so  is  the  last.  If  no  rights 
are  sacred,  then  every  revolution  is  justified.  The  Church 
is  the  only  moral  body  in  the  whole  world  which  has 
remained  consistent  and  sternly  logical.  Whole  nations  have 
risen  up  against  her.  Her  rebellious  children  have  often 
offered  her  violence,  but  she  has  remained  ever  the  same, 
serene  in  the  midst  of  revolutions,  confident  of  the  promises 
of  Christ;  and  she  has  beheld  the  dissolution  and  decay 
of  all  that  threatened  her,  while  she,  ever  youthful,  ever 
more  vigorous,  still  flourishes,  still  teaches  the  truths  which 
save  society  and  the  world. 

Christ  warned  his  Church  of  the  battle  and  the  warfare 
through  which  she  was  to  march  to  her  eternal  triumph. 
Each  century  has  verified  His  prophecy.  A  century  ago 
Protestantism  was  in  the  field  against  her  and  the  ground  of 
warfare  was  a  few  texts  of  Scripture.  Today  Protestantism 
has  thrown  scripture  to  the  winds  and  with  Protestantism 
there  is  no  longer  any  struggle.  It  has  vanished  from  the  field 
self-destroyed.  But  a  new  foe  faces  the  Church,  or  rather  its 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  11 


most  ancient  enemy  in  a  new  armor.  It  is  paganism.  The 
paganism  of  Rome  and  Greece  marching  under  a  standard 
woven  from  the  last  shreds  of  those  Christian  principles 
which  have  been  saved  from  the  ruins.  It  knows  no  Christ, 
no  dogma,  no  leader,  no  time  but  the  present,  no  place  but 
the  earth.  It  sneers  at  all  revelation,  and  scoffs  at  the  super¬ 
natural.  And  yet  it  hails  as  a  new  salvation  the  ravings  of 
half  demented  prophets  and  grovels  in  the  stupidity  of 
Oriental  superstition. 

And  leagued  with  this  foe,  who  fights  with  lazy  indif¬ 
ference  there  is  another  which  is  neither  lazy  nor  indifferent, 
but  with  a  virulence  of  antipathy  and  a  tireless  activity  all 
its  own,  weilds  in  season  and  out  of  season  its  sharp 
weapon  with  a  hate  that  is  almost  blind  at  everything  that  is 
left  of  the  Christian  name.  The  aggressiveness  of  this  enemy 
of  Christ  is  the  aggressiveness  of  the  evil  one  himself.  And 
its  cunning  is  the  cunning  of  him  who  is  the  father  of  lies.  It 
disdains  no  means,  it  scorns  no  assistance  that  will  produce 
desired  results.  The  press,  the  stage,  the  platform,  however 
and  wherever  it  can  catch  the  public  ear  and  the  public  eye 
serve  its  purposes.  In  France  it  worked  for  half  a  century 
without  showing  its  true  hand;  and  when  at  last  it  was 
caught  red-handed,  no  lie  was  too  gross,  no  calumny  too 
vile  to  cloak  its  own  trickery  and  deception. 

And  so  the  two  foes  which  face  today  the  cross  of  Christ, 
still  raised  aloft  by  His  Church  as  the  tree  of  eternal  life  and 
the  banner  of  salvation,  are  first,  the  last  remnants  of  that 
negation  once  called  Protestantism  and  now  styling  itself 
queerly  enough  “The  New  Religion,”  and  secondly,  the  same 


12  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 

eternal  energy,  paganism,  which  the  Apostles  faced  from 
the  first  day  when  to  the  Gentile  world  they  preached  Christ 
crucified.  And  the  Catholic  Church  today,  holding  firm  and 
fast  to  the  same  principles  and  the  same  doctrine  and  the 
same  law  which  Peter  and  James  and  John  delivered  to 
Jerusalem  and  Rome  and  Athens,  standing  on  the  ground 
of  the  same  eternal  truths,  never  changing,  yet  always 
moving  the  whole  moral  world,  remains  in  spite  of  new 
thought  and  new  theories  the  only  permanent  strength  in 
all  the  world,  the  only  reliable  moral  force  upon  which 
all  order  and  law  and  authority  can  depend,  and  therefore 
the  only  moral  organization  and  institution  which  with¬ 
stands  alike  the  false  pretensions  of  conceited  novelties  in 
religion  and  the  turbulent  restlessness  of  all  revolutionists 
against  civil  order. 

It  is  wonderful  how  men  can  deceive  themselves  with 
a  little  flattery  and  it  is  pathetic  to  see  what  intellectual 
vanity  can  do  to  cover  up  the  glaring  fallacies  of  new 
systems.  To  accept  what  the  experience  of  ages  has  proven 
has  for  some  temperaments  little  attraction.  Newness, 
originality,  is  the  first  requisite  for  them,  and  so  under  the 
guise  of  a  new  need  for  new  conditions  they  invent  for 
themselves  new  principles,  a  new  doctrine  and  call  them  a 
new  church.  And  with  a  blindness  which  is  beyond  compre¬ 
hension  they  fail  to  see  the  double  fallacy  of  their  position 
from  the  point  of  view  of  both  history  and  philosphy.  For 
the  profound  student  of  history  knows  that  every  so-called 
new  condition  of  society  has  been  repeated  one  hundred 
times  before  in  the  story  of  the  race.  The  names  of  the 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  13 


people  and  places  change,  the  conditions  are  identical.  There 
is  not  a  single  condition  existing  today  in  the  whole  world, 
civilized  or  uncivilized,  which  the  Church  of  Christ  has  not 
faced  one  hundred  times  before  and  settled  with  the  same 
identical  principle.  And  the  student  of  philosophy  knows 
that  truth  is  always  truth  and  the  only  originality  in  the 
moral  order  is  immorality;  and  yet  we  are  expected  seriously 
to  listen  to  all  this  talk  about  the  growth  of  truth  and  the 
new  religion.  If  this  growth  consists,  as  we  plainly  recognize 
that  it  does,  in  a  return  to  the  Paganism  of  twenty  centuries 
ago,  we  fail  to  see  what  the  twenty  centuries  of  growth  have 
accomplished.  If  this  so  called  “new  thought”  and  new 
religion  mean  the  blotting  out  of  the  whole  inorality  of 
Christ,  as  in  the  end  it  certainly  does,  all  meaningless 
phrases  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  prating  about 
progress  and  intellectual  advance  is  the  progress  of  the  crab 
walking  backwards. 

Take  away  from  the  Christian  religion  all  that  makes 
it  essentially  Christian,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  reality 
of  the  supernatural  world,  the  necessity  of  grace,  the  in¬ 
herent  moral  weakness  of  human  nature — take  them  away 
as  the  “new  thought”  and  new  religion  have  done  and  we 
ask  why  speak  of  Christianity  at  all,  except  as  a  mockery 
and  a  snare.  It  is  strange  that  with  all  their  boasting  they 
still  fear  to  call  themselves  openly  the  pagans  that  they  are. 

They  pretend  still  to  reverence  Christ.  Strange  logic! 
for  if  Christ  be  the  man  they  represent,  He  is  the  greatest 
imposter  and  criminal  the  world  has  ever  known.  For  He 
has  deceived  the  human  race  in  the  most  vital  matter  that 


14  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


concerns  humanity.  Why  then  this  mockery  of  their 
allegiance  to  Christ  and  the  name  of  Christian?  It  would 
seem  as  if  they  had  a  superstitious  dread  of  taking  the  last 
and  most  logical  step  of  all — that  of  renouncing  the  entire 
Christian  name  and  openly  joining  hands  with  those  who 
have  opposed  it  from  the  beginning.  And  we  repeat,  driven 
as  we  are  by  the  inexorable  force  of  the  true  logic  of  their 
position,  that  they  stand  before  this  only  alternative :  either 
to  go  back  to  the  shadow  of  the  cross  upon  which  the  God- 
Man  died  for  their  salvation,  back  to  the  rock  upon  which 
Christ  built  His  Church,  that  Church  against  which  neither 
new  religions  nor  new  revolutions  can  ever  prevail;  or 
frankly  disavowing  His  principles  and  His  law,  throw  off  His 
yoke  entirely  and  take  the  only  other  logical  stand,  the  stand 
which  all  the  world  had  taken  before  Christ  came,  that 
there  is  nothing  but  conjecture  in  the  whole  realm  of  spiritual 
life,  no  certainty  of  hope  beyond  the  tomb,  no  philosophy  of 
life,  but  that  which  bids  man  to  eat,  drink  and  be  merry,  for 
tomorrow  we  die,  and  death  ends  all. 

This  is  the  true  and  logical  terminus  toward  which 
modern  life,  rejecting  the  guidance  of  divine  faith,  inevitably 
is  tending.  It  is  unquestionably  the  final  conclusion  of  the 
premises  which  the  so  called  “new  thought”  has  openly 
espoused.  Are  they  prepared  to  accept  the  bitter  logic  of  the 
situation?  A  logic  which  has  begun  to  work  itself  out  under 
our  very  eyes  and  the  fruit  of  which,  however  unwelcome, 
is  now  at  their  very  doors.  Why  talk  about  the  evils  of 
divorce?  Why  bewail  the  diminution  of  the  birthrate  and 
the  threatened  extinction  of  family  life?  Why  decry  the 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  15 


rising  discontent  visible  all  around  us?  Why  complain  of 
the  social  disorders  that  are  rending  the  civil  fabric?  Why 
exclaim  in  horror  at  the  lawless  uprisings  of  anarchy  and 
riot  against  constituted  authority?  Why  bemoan  the 
growing  divisions  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  and  the 
clamor  which  fills  the  land  of  class  against  class?  These 
are  after  all  only  the  practical  working  out  of  the  very 
principles  which  for  a  century  and  more  the  apostles  of  this 
new  religion  have  been  upholding.  They  are  the  scourge 
which  infidelity  and  agnosticism  have  brought  down  upon 
the  shoulders  of  those  who  have  preached  them. 

The  people  are  more  logical  than  their  leaders,  these  wise¬ 
acres  with  intellects  too  great  to  accept  historic  Christianity. 
Poor,  dull  people,  with  whom  these  modern  philosophers  so 
often  have  grown  impatient  because  they  learn  so  slowly. 
They  are  learning  fast  enough  now — they  have  seized  at  last 
the  full  meaning  of  the  new  principles  of  salvation  which 
make  each  man  both  pope  and  king,  which  hand  over  to  the 
interpretation  of  each  individual  the  mystery  of  life  to  solve 
according  to  his  own  judgment  and  his  own  taste.  Yes, 
they  are  learning  fast  now — so  fast  that  their  teachers  are 
horrified  at  their  aptness.  And  when  at  the  lightning  speed 
which  they  now  have  attained  the  new  principles  have 
arrived  at  their  full  application,  when  all  government  is 
threatened,  except  the  government  of  each  man  by  himself, 
when  at  last  the  only  sanction  which  human  law  has  is  force, 
as  it  must  be  when  the  groundwork  of  the  supernatural  is 
abolished  and  moral  obligations  have  no  more  meaning, 
what  will  there  be  left  to  oppose  to  force  but  force,  and 


16  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


what  is  that  but  war.  And  the  war,  not  of  nation  against 
nation,  but  of  man  against  man;  and  that  is  anarchy. 

It  is  idle  for  them  to  imagine  that  philanthropy  will  have 
any  power  to  stem  the  tide  which  infidelity  and  irreligion 
have  started.  It  is  mere  folly  to  attempt  to  supplant  faith  by 
humanitarianism.  This  is  the  latest  of  all  their  fallacies  and 
will  be  found  as  fruitless  as  its  predecessors.  The  evil  is 
deeper  than  mere  surface  ills  and  the  momentary  relief  of 
them  can  never  change  the  radical  wrong.  There  are  certain 

appetites  that  only  grow  by  feeding,  and  if  life  is  to  be 

* 

reduced  to  the  mere  process  of  getting,  no  amount  of  material 
giving  will  ever  satisfy  its  insatiable  hunger.  That  remedy 
has  been  tried  before  and  failed  utterly,  and  that  for  the 
simple  reason  that  moral  content  alone  produces  real  happi¬ 
ness  whether  a  man  be  as  rich  as  Croesus  or  as  poor  as 
Lazarus.  And  there  can  never  be  moral  content  without 
moral  life,  and  there  can  never  be  moral  life  without  spiritual 
law,  and  there  is  no  spiritual  law  that  has  any  lasting 
foundation,  any  substantial  hope,  any  universal  and  eternal 
motive  but  the  law  of  Christ  living  in  His  Church. 

If  there  is  any  form  of  government  which  needs  for  its 
permanence  and  prosperity  the  conserving  force  of  right 
moral  Christian  sentiment  it  is  a  republic.  Under  a  monarchy 
loyalty  to  the  reigning  house  and  its  traditions  and  glories, 
together  with  the  aristocracy  of  inheritance  can,  as  history 
has  often  proven,  hold  in  abeyance  the  forces  of  disunion  and 
dismemberment.  Today  the  greatest  power  which  holds 
together  the  whole  Japanese  people  is  the  veneration  in  which 
the  Japanese  rightfully  hold  the  Mikado  and  the  Imperial 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  17 


family.  In  a  republic  there  is  no  such  conservative  influence. 
The  principle  at  least  in  theory  of  a  democratic  form  of  gov¬ 
ernment  is  that  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  people  is  the 
law.  Popular  sentiment  then  is  the  very  groundwork  and 
foundation  of  its  existence,  and  the  moral  atmosphere  which 
pervades  the  mass  of  the  citizens  is  the  only  safeguard  of 
its  permanence.  It  is  for  this  reason  that,  while  changes 
in  a  monarchy  are  slow,  in  a  republic  they  sometimes  come 
with  the  rapidity  of  lightning.  The  germ  of  disorder,  wnich 
in  an  empire  may  take  centuries  to  develop,  in  a  republic 
may  require  but  a  single  year.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  no 
one  who  loves  this  thrice  blessed  land  of  ours  can  behold 
with  indifference  the  smallest  beginnings  of  those  principles 
which  in  these  latter  days  more  than  ever  before  have 
become  evident  among  us — the  principles,  I  repeat,  of  a 
new  paganism  imported  from  the  schools  of  German  agnostic 
philosophy,  finding  their  way  through  the  universities  and 
the  pulpit  down  among  the  people.  Wait  but  a  little  longer 
and  the  nation  one  day  will  awake  startled  to  find  the 
principles  which  it  once  applauded  doing  such  mischief  as 
these  myopic  teachers  never  contemplated. 

For  the  people  are  merciless  in  their  logic  when  once 
they  have  learned  well  their  lesson.  If  the  whole  period  of 
their  early  education  is  spent  with  no  instruction  in  the 
divine  truths  which  lead  towards  God,  they  can  hardly  be 
expected  later  when  passion  and  self-interest  have  grown 
stronger  to  find  their  way  to  Him.  If  all  their  childhood 
passes  in  the  effort  of  merely  mental  training  and  no 
thought  is  given  to  instilling  into  their  childish  hearts  the 


18  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


moral  curbs  and  restraints  and  influences  which  hold  the 
appetites  in  check,  or  if  the  only  basis  of  moral  restraint  is 
human  respect,  who  is  to  blame  if  in  later  life  self-will  and 
self-seeking  shall  burst  these  weak  bonds  and  sweep  before 
them  whatever  stands  in  their  way.  The  lack  of  religious 
influence  in  early  years  in  the  home  and  in  the  school  has 
begun  already  to  bear  its  fruit  in  every  phase  of  our 
national  life.  And  this  unwelcome  fact  is  so  palpable  that 
at  last  the  once  enthusiastic  devotees  of  a  purely  secular 
education  cannot  close  their  eyes  to  the  inherent  weakness 
of  the  system  and  its  vicious  effects  upon  the  whole  life  of 
the  people. 

We  Catholics  have  pointed  it  out  like  many  another 
danger  for  a  century  past  and  our  only  thanks  were  to  be 
rated  as  enemies  of  popular  instruction  and  belittlers  of 
the  great  panacea  of  public  school  training.  But  we  are 
well  accustomed  to  this  kind  of  gratitude,  and  having 
sounded  the  warning  for  others,  we  have  done  our  own  duty 
to  our  own  under  circumstances  which  have  proven  our 
sincerity;  for  while  our  people  are  among  the  poorest  of 
this  country  in  material  goods  and  the  least  able  to  bear 
new  burdens  they  have  attested  their  fidelity  to  the  welfare 
of  the  nation  in  a  way  that  not  even  the  richest  have  done. 
Out  of  their  slender  means  they  have  erected,  at  the  cost 
of  millions  and  millions  of  dollars,  schools  and  institutions 
wherein  their  children  might  be  taught  that  there  is  a  God 
to  whom  all  men  must  be  responsible,  that  the  moral  law 
emanating  from  that  God  binds  them  during  all  their  lives, 
that  all  authority  is  from  God,  that  civil  rulers  are  sacred 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  19 


in  that  authority,  that  the  law  of  the  land  is  to  be  obeyed 
under  penalty  of  God’s  displeasure,  that  the  rights  of 
property  are  sacred,  and  all  those  other  inviolable  principles 
of  right  and  duty  which  stand  for  order  in  the  world  and  the 
peace  of  humanity. 

What  other  organization  in  this  whole  country  is 
doing  at  such  tremendous  sacrifice  what  we  have  done? 
And  for  all  this  we  have  received  up  to  the  present  nothing 
but  suspicion  and  distrust.  Nay  more,  while  doing  for  the 
children  of  the  nation  what  even  the  nation  itself  cannot 
do,  we  have  been  burdened  with  a  double  taxation,  which 
is,  let  us  say  it  boldly  and  continue  to  repeat  it  until  the 
burden  is  removed,  nothing  short  of  outrageous  tyranny. 
For  we  have  been  forced,  while  expending  enormous  sums 
which  we  could  little  afford  in  the  training  of  our  youth 
in  the  sane  principles  of  Christian  morality  which  are  the 
best  safeguard  of  the  nation,  to  pay  more  than  our  share  of 
the  taxes  for  the  support  of  schools  which,  however  good 
they  may  otherwise  be,  can  never  by  their  very  constitution 
even  so  much  as  lay  one  stone  in  the  moral  foundation  of 
civil  life.  For,  I  repeat,  there  is  no  morality  without 
religion.  There  may  be  ethical  speculation  which  the  child 
is  free  to  accept  or  reject,  and  surely  that  is  a  poor  morality. 
And  so  this  most  recent  effort  to  inject  into  secular  education 
some  appearance  of  moral  training  is  almost  worse  than 
none  at  all,  since  by  its  doubtful  attitude  it  must  inevitably 
weaken  the  whole  basis  of  moral  law  by  making  it  appear 
to  the  child  as  a  matter  of  choice  and  selection  or  even  of 
complete  rejection,  for  its  foundation  is,  not  the  eternal 


20  The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic 


principles  of  the  divine  will,  but  the  mere  question  of  human 
agreement.  And  I  call  upon  this  Federation  and  upon 
every  Christian  in  the  land  to  oppose  with  all  his  influence 
this  latest  attempt  of  an  infidel  propaganda  to  thrust  into 
the  schools  what  appears  on  the  surface  to  be  an  innocent 
system  of  ethical  culture,  but  which  in  reality  is  only  another 
clever  ruse  to  substitute  a  pagan  philosophy  for  Christianity. 
Better  one  hundred  thousand  times  never  mention  the  name 
of  religion,  leaving  it  to  the  homes  and  the  churches  to  do 
what  they  can  in  supplementing  the  moral  and  religious 
training  of  the  child  than  this  astute  manoeuvre  to  root  out 
of  the  child’s  life  every  idea  of  sentiment  of  supernatural 
law.  And  if  this  meeting  of  Federation  will  have  accom¬ 
plished  only  this  one  great  achievement — namely,  of 
arousing  the  whole  American  people  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
awful  dangers  which  the  nation  must  eventually  face  if  this 
system  of  irreligious  or  unreligious  training  of  the  young 
continues,  it  will  have  done  something  to  gain  the  eternal 
gratitude  of  all  true  patriots.  Meanwhile  we  must  ourselves 
stand  fast  to  our  own  principles.  Our  growing  numbers 
and  influence  impose  upon  us  greater  responsibilities.  As 
the  Christian  faith  in  those  around  us  is  flickering  out,  our 
own  must  burn  ever  more  brightly.  And  the  louder  the  cry 
is  raised  of  those  whose  only  faith  is  in  their  own  wisdom, 
the  louder  we  must  raise  our  voices  towards  the  God  who 
made  humanity  out  of  dust  and  by  whose  knowledge  alone 
man  may  hope  to  learn.  The  world  is  clamoring  for  peace, 
and  yet  often  they  who  are  seeking  it  are  but  unconsciously 
sowing  the  seeds  out  of  which  discord  alone  can  grow.  It 


The  Church — The  Strong  Safeguard  of  the  Republic  21 


is  our  duty  to  turn  their  eyes  out  upon  the  hills  where 
Christ  still  sits  weeping  over  the  world,  blinded  by  its  own 
folly,  its  heart  still  as  hard  as  the  people  of  His  own 
Jerusalem,  its  mind  still  as  proud  as  the  proud  teachers  of 
His  time.  Let  us  love  our  dear  land  as  He  did  His;  and  by 
the  knowledge  which  His  faith  alone  can  bring  and  by  the 
charity  which  His  law  alone  can  kindle,  let  us  by  word  and 
example  show  forth  to  all  who  are  willing  to  see  those 
things  which  are  for  our  country’s  peace. 


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